Back to Contents
The International Association of Psychosocial Rehabilitation Services
(IAPSRS) has as one of its primary missions the task of developing
Psychosocial Rehabilitation (PSR) as a professional discipline.
To that end, they have for several years been working towards
the development of a comprehensive set of workforce competencies
that could be utilized as standards in the certification of PSR
workers. This task has become even more pressing in view of the
national efforts to develop comprehensive health insurance coverage
in the United States (The White House Domestic Policy Council,
1993). It is essential that professional standards for PSR be
clearly delineated if PSR is to be included as a service that
is covered under national health insurance.
In recent years, there have been a several efforts to elucidate
PSR workforce competencies or competencies for related endeavors
that might be relevant (Curtis, 1993; Friday and McPheeters, 1985;
Jonikas, 1993; IAPSRS Ontario Chapter, 1992). To move the process
along, IAPSRS contracted with the Thresholds Research and Training
Center on Rehabilitation and Mental Illness to: a) review the
literature on PSR competencies and develop a paper that integrated
that literature; and b) conduct a concept mapping project with
a selected national group of PSR experts designed to elucidate
a comprehensive framework of competencies. The Jonikas (1993)
document constituted the literature review. This report describes
the concept mapping project that was undertaken.
Concept mapping is a process that can be used to help a group
describe its ideas on any topic of interest (Trochim, 1989a).
The process typically requires the participants to brainstorm
a large set of statements relevant to the topic of interest, individually
sort these statements into piles of similar ones and rate each
statement on some scale, and interpret the maps that result from
the data analyses. The analyses typically include a two-dimensional
multidimensional scaling (MDS) of the unstructured sort data,
a hierarchical cluster analysis of the MDS coordinates, and the
computation of average ratings for each statement and cluster
of statements. The maps that result show the individual statements
in two-dimensional (x,y) space with more similar statements located
nearer each other, and show how the statements are grouped into
clusters that partition the space on the map. Participants are
led through a structured interpretation session designed to help
them understand the maps and label them in a substantively meaningful
way.
The concept mapping process as conducted here was first described
by Trochim and Linton (1986). Trochim (1989a) delineates the process
in detail and Trochim (1989b) presents a wide range of example
projects. Concept mapping has received considerable use and appears
to be growing in popularity. It has been used to address substantive
issues in the social services (Galvin, 1989; Mannes, 1989), mental
health (Cook, 1992; Kane, 1992; Lassegard, 1993; Marquart, 1988;
Marquart, 1992; Marquart et al, 1993; Penney, 1992; Ryan and Pursley,
1992; Shern, 1992; Trochim, 1989a; Trochim and Cook, 1992; Trochim
et al, in press; Valentine, 1992), health care (Valentine, 1989),
education (Grayson, 1993; Kohler, 1992; Kohler, 1993), educational
administration (Gurowitz et al, 1988), and theory development
(Linton, 1989). Considerable methodological work on the concept
mapping process and its potential utility has also been accomplished
(Bragg and Grayson, 1993; Caracelli, 1989; Cooksy, 1989; Davis,
1989; Dumont, 1989; Grayson, 1992; Keith, 1989; Lassegard, 1992;
Marquart, 1989; Mead and Bowers, 1992; Mercer, 1992; SenGupta,
1993; Trochim, 1985 , 1989c, 1990).
The concept mapping process involves six major steps:
1 Preparation
2 Generation
3 Structuring
4 Representation
5 Interpretation
6 Utilization
This report presents the results of the project in sequential
order according to the six steps in the process.
Back to Contents